


Like Tides

by 56leon



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Pining, idk what else to tag this as?, literally just a big ol' pinefest from Captain Leon Bastralle (tm)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 06:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15679557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/56leon/pseuds/56leon
Summary: Every time he meets her, she’s something else. A protege, a friend.....a love. A look at how, when and why a pirate fell for a merchant.





	Like Tides

**Author's Note:**

> it's almost 1am this is a fragmented mess and I want to die so take this before I delete it all out of frustration I guess

****When he meets her, she's refreshing, a young merchant full of spunk. She introduces herself fearlessly, _Tressa Colozone,_ and he has to admire that; maybe it’s ignorance, but the fact remains that she smiles where others would cower, and she’s inquisitive when lesser men would be fearful. Having a reputation as a notorious (ex) pirate often has that effect on people, but Tressa is different.

Then she says that she wants to get revenge on the pirates plaguing her small port town, and he _knows_ she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Still, something draws him to her, _something_ compels him to help her, and so he offers his wares. It’s not much, but it’s something he can do as a merchant.

Still, something doesn’t sit well with him, and he can’t help but to follow her, just in case. Fortunately for him, his instinct is spot on, and while it’s been a while since his spear has been aimed at another human, his weapon remains true to him and the sight of it is enough to scare away the lowlifes that consider themselves pirates.

At that point, he half expects her to run as well; he’s one of _them,_ after all, except stronger and infamous and _definitely_ more dangerous. But she hears him out, and he appreciates the gesture. She’s different from others, and he had realized it before but he _understands_ it now. There’s something about Tressa, about the way she can see the value of not only items, but also _people,_ and it’s a bright, youthful optimism that he wishes he has in his life. But it’s a bit late for a sea dog like him, and so instead he lives vicariously through her a bit.

It’s a single treasure, but she looks at him like he’s offered the world. To Leon, it’s amusing, and at some level almost endearing. His entire ship is filled to the brim with exotic goods from every corner of the globe, and yet a single thing can affect her in such a large way....maybe he’s jaded, or maybe he already has his treasure, but her expression jolts him nonetheless. He hopes she picks something that makes her happy, something she can treasure and use as inspiration to become a better merchant.

She chooses a book.

He laughs at first, offers her something else- but she’s adamant. It’s _hers._ Her treasure, he understands better than anyone, and so she lets her keep it. He’s almost disappointed, wanting her to take something of value that she deserves for her reckless bravery, but maybe the journal is enough. After all, the look in her eyes is a sparkling wonder, and he can’t say no to a lass like that.

He doesn’t realize, not until long after the exchange when the book is filled with her words and thoughts, just how much of her life he had changed.

(It takes him even longer to realize how much of _his_ was changed by _her.)_

 

* * *

 

When they meet the second time, it comes as a pleasant surprise, on the other side of the country in a town known more for gladiatorial combat than trading. Leon has his own reasons for visiting, memories of a long lost friend and a wish to fulfill his dream, but Tressa is simply on a search. It’s still an adventure to her, the girl who has barely left the nest to stretch her wings, and he thinks that he no longer has the right to call her a mere lass. He still does, though, much to her chagrin, but there’s something different about her. She’s stronger, in presence _and_ in ability, and she’s nowhere near the same as the adolescent who had rushed into a cave to fight a pair of scallywags. She’s still brash, yes, and still cheerful and naive, of _course,_ but without those, she just isn’t Tressa Colozone.

Now, though, she’s _more_ than Tressa Colozone. She’s something bright and passionate, and he can see the hope in her eyes that he prays never fades. She tells him of her journey, of what she’s written in the book he’s given her, and he listens intently, words weaving the story of the girl in front of him that has yet to continue. It’s a story of excitement and rivalry, and he has half a mind to offer one of his wares, but he knows better. She’s a prideful sort, after all, and the treasure she’s looking for has to be one of her own finding, not just a resale from an old man.

Of course, treasure never comes easy, and it’s a sudden whirlwind of emotions that remind him of his standing. A lost map, a lost treasure, a lost _friend...._.he rejects the map, despite Tressa’s good intentions. He isn’t worthy, he thinks, but maybe she is. Maybe she can find a place for the treasure that he never earned. She says okay.

And then she comes back.

 

* * *

 

Now, Leon is a man of the sea. She’s been his home ever since he earned his legs, and he knows how temperamental she is. He’s never given her a reason to drag him under, and he hopes to never give her the opportunity as long as he lives. But something changes when Tressa returns with Baltazar’s treasure, holding it delicately out to him, buzzing with pride yet still careful not to drop the gem. He sees the way her eyes sparkle like light off of the crest of waves, and the way she smiles at the eldrite as if she’s holding the entire world in her hands, and as his lungs refuse to work properly and his ears rush with the sound of the ocean in his veins, he thinks, yes, this is what drowning must feel like.

 

* * *

 

She sits in the back of his mind all the time after that, smiling and laughing and _gods_ does he want to protect her, but gods if he's not one of the people she needs protecting _from_. He’s an ex-pirate, the kind of person that she hates the most even if the sentiment doesn’t extend to him specifically, and he’d be an idiot to think that a fifteen years difference is just a drop in the ocean, either. There are a whole host of reasons that his mind keeps reminding his heart, more excuses to stop feeling things towards her than there are fish in the sea. But they keep meeting, disappearing from each other’s lives before reaching out again like tides on the beach, and his excuses slip away as he watches her grow.

She’s still beautiful, brave, and absolutely _reckless,_ and he can probably make a list of all the times she’s ran off _towards_ danger rather than away from it. Really, he jokes with his crew when they give him the chance between teasing him themselves, she has the nose of a shark but the common sense of a sardine. Blasted if he’d ever say that to her face, though- not because she’d get mad, but because he just _knows_ she would give him a Tressa brand pout, cheeks puffing in a way that makes him want to kiss them both.

Every time they meet, she just gets more radiant. Her body is battle-hardened, the spear in her pack worn with use, but her smile is still innocent, bringing joy with it that Leon cherishes every time. He waxes embarrassingly poetic about her in his mind, but no more than that, trying to remain content with admiring her as she travels far away with others, and waiting for the day that the light in her eyes will once more shine for him.

 

* * *

 

_Meeting her is like greeting the sun every morning, knowing that it has never actually disappeared even when it dips under the horizon, but still adoring it all the more when it rises once again._

(He makes that off-handed remark one day in the middle of rigging the sails, and he’s pretty sure his first mate almost falls out of the crow’s nest laughing. Only then does he vow to never say a word aloud again.)

 

* * *

 

They’re in Victor’s Hollow once more, and she’s telling him of her latest daring escapades with her traveling companions. It’s a giant demon this time, or.... _not_ a demon, a person, he isn’t sure how she’s explaining it since she’s talking at the speed of light, but he’s enjoying the story nonetheless and so says nothing to interrupt her. Her eyes are as bright as ever, and the book by her side is worn with wear; it’s not the one she had received from him, but one that she’s filled by herself, almost halfway through the pages and still excited for more.

She talks for hours, explaining every detail as she keeps him caught up with her journal. He only stops her occasionally, to ask a question for clarification or flag down a tavern wench for more food or drinks; he treats her that day, just like every day they meet, even though she complains that she has enough to pay for them both. It’s something small he can do for her, he reasons, since everything else he wants is too impossible for somebody like him to be asking for. He’s quietly triumphant when she relents, and amused when she still pushes a small pile of leaves towards him at the end of their rendezvous. An exchange between merchants, she demands. Money offered for goods and services.

He doesn’t deny _all_ of the money, protecting her integrity as a businesswoman at the very least, but he does tuck a single leaf into the brim of her hat, which she accepts reluctantly. A single leaf isn’t of any worry to either of them, not when Leon has Baltazar’s ship full of priceless artifacts and Tressa has the Wyndham reward tucked away somewhere, but to Leon, it’s symbolic. Of what, he may never figure out himself, but having at least one of his own leaves on her person makes him feel closer to her somehow.

It helps even more when she claims that she’ll never spend it.

After their breakfast, which had also turned into lunch _and_ dinner along the way, they unfortunately have to bid farewell once more. With sparse words that promise another meeting - never _goodbye,_ simply _see you soon_ \- she traipses after the rest of her comrades, off on another adventure that he’s sure to hear about the next time they meet. He already knows that his heart has been taken along with her.

Maybe it’ll be a handful of days until he sees her again, or maybe it’ll be weeks or months to tend to the spot where his heart used to be, but either way it’s a sickness that will plague him until then. He’ll get teased mercilessly, and that camaraderie will soothe him for as long as it can, and perhaps the salt on his face will clear his mind, if not his heart, for however many moons it takes to reach their destination.

He calls out to hoist the anchor, giving his crew no time to spare as he charts a course for their next stop. It’s another country this time, far from Goldport and probably even farther from Tressa, but the look of uninhibited wonder on her face when he regales her with stories of the stormy seas and distant lands filled with gold and rubies will make it worth it. And after that, after he’s searched all seven seas for the most beautiful treasures that the world has to offer......

He’ll come back to his.


End file.
